Tommy Tucker

Tommy: How long is too long to wait after calling 911?

by Tommy Tucker,posted Apr 22 2014 10:03AM

You call 911 because you see some dangerous activity going on, and it rings… and rings…and rings… and rings. Maybe it was a bad connection, so you hang up and call again. And it rings… and rings… and rings. So you hang up and try AGAIN. And it rings… and rings… and still more rings before someone finally picks up.

That’s exactly what happened to Ken Barnhart on Easter Sunday while he was practicing with his flag football team in Audubon Park.

“There were some off-road vehicles riding through the grass at the Park in close proximity to kids and families.”

So he called 911 and had difficulty getting through to an operator. On Barnhart’s third call, “they answered the call and said they were busy, which was the reason for the lack of response, but not much more than that. And they said they would dispatch a police unit, took my phone number and name; and I asked them to give me a call when they got on scene.”

How long did it take the police to get there?

“I didn’t see anyone by the time we left the park, 20 to 30 minutes after the incident.”

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